NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Flows in Kasei
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1264, 28 October 2005
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows flow materials—on the east/right side of the image—that have come in among a suite of sharp ridges and grooves on the floor of the vast Kasei Valles system. The ridges and grooves are much older and are believed to be the result of a giant, catastrophic flood. The flows might have been mud or lava that ran part way down the ancient valley at a later date. |
Location near: 16.7°N, 76.5°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Winter |
Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.